Took me 20 years to figure out I was clamping my face frames wrong

I've been building cabinet doors since the late 90s and always clamped my face frames with the joints sitting flat on the bench. Last month a customer brought in an old piece from a shop in Portland that had these perfect mitered corners that just fit together like glass. I asked the guy who built it and he said he clamps everything on edge so the glue settles into the joint instead of running out. Tried it on my next three frames and the difference in tightness was immediate. Anyone else have a basic technique they did backward for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

robins831mo ago

Hold the clamps on edge, or are you shimming the frame to angle the joints?

amy_anderson1mo ago

I used to clamp everything flat but your shimming method makes much more sense now.